DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. will delay shipping its new Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers to dealerships for at least a couple of weeks.

Company executives have been saying the Edge and MKX would arrive in dealerships in mid- to late November. But in an interview today, Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s vice president of North American manufacturing, said the crossover duo won’t be available for sale until at least December.

Ford has had “some hiccups in the launch curve,” Hinrichs said.

“The manufacturing process and the supply base aren’t to the level of consistency and stability we’d like to see,” he said. “You need to have the product right -- which we think we do, in this case. But you also have to have the process right.”

Ford told the Ford and Lincoln Mercury national dealer councils of the delays today.

The Edge and MKX are being assembled at Ford’s plant in Oakville, Ontario. New Ford CEO Alan Mulally visited the plant Oct. 16 to celebrate the Job 1 manufacturing launch of the crossovers. Ford is calling the launch its most important product debut of this year.

Hinrichs wouldn’t share specifics about the manufacturing hiccups. The plant continues to assemble the vehicles. The bottom line is that it’s taking longer to build Edges and MKXs than planned at this point.

“We’re not getting the consistency of meeting the cycle times, of getting the work done in station, that we’d like to see at this time,” Hinrichs said. “That means we’re having to slow the line down or stop the line.”

Hinrichs wouldn’t say how many vehicles are being built each day. The number of Edges and MKXs already built number “in the thousands,” he said.

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